Succulents and More™

Many of you have been following my blog for a long time and know as much (or more) about me than I do myself; I'm not exactly a cryptic species. But if you're relatively new to my blog, there are some things you may not know.  In its May 2026 newsletter, the Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society  had a feature about yours truly, based on a Q&A format. Nothing earth-shattering here, but I thought I'd repost it in case there are things you didn't know about me. 1. What piqued your interest in cacti/succulents? My mother had cacti and euphorbias on her windowsills when I was growing up. I got a moon cactus when I was 12. So it seems I’ve been around them forever. As an adult/gardener, my interest really took off when I realized that they make great landscape plants: They’re beautiful, and they need very little care. 2. Role in the club and why. I’ve been secretary and webmaster for a number of years. These roles play to my strengths. I’m well organized, and I work be...

I take photos in the garden virtually every day to document what’s going on. Many of these images don’t fit into specific categories, but they’re still worth showing. That’s why I have these occasional “This and that” posts. They’re the perfect vehicles for pictures that might otherwise remain unseen. Let’s get started with some cactus photos. Lophocereus schottii ‘Woolly Rhino’ seen from above Cardon ( Pachycereus pringlei ) seen from above My creeping devil ( Stenocereus eruca ) in the box Kyle made for me in August 2024. It’s doubled in size since then and has made a few offsets. I recently entered it in the Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society Show. It won an Award of Excellence, which netted me $25 to spend at the event. The first wave of cactus flowers is always the best ( see this post ), but there’s been a nonstop succession since mid-April. I’ll have a separate post so these photos are just teasers: Parodia mammulosa var. roseolutea , probably my favorite cactus flower o...

In my previous post , I showed you the grounds at Dairy Creek Meadows, the 30-acre rural spread owned by long-time gardeners Craig Quirk and Larry Neill outside of Portland, Oregon. This post is about the greenhouse and the crevice garden that surrounds it, both masterpieces in their own right. I think you’ll be blown away. Let’s start with the greenhouse. It sits in the middle of a naturalistic perennial meadow designed in collaboration with Laura Crockett of Garden Diva Designs and inspired by the work of Piet Oudolf . The area is fully fenced to keep out the local deer population. When I visited, in early April, most of the meadow perennials were still dormant; take a look at this photo from Craig’s Instagram to see what it looks like in summer. The greenhouse is actually two interconnected structures from Hartley Botanic , a British manufacturer known for its classic designs and superior build quality. Craig told us that the glasshouses were delivered on two flat-bed trucks. And...